The Remarkable and Selective In Vitro Cytotoxicity of Synthesized Bola-Amphiphilic Nanovesicles on Etoposide-Sensitive and -Resistant Neuroblastoma Cells

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a solid tumor occurring in infancy and childhood. Its high-risk form has currently a survival rate 50 values of 0.2 µM on HTLA-230 and 1.1 µM on HTLA-ER (538-fold lower than that of ETO) were already determined after 24 h of treatment. The very low cell viability observed after 24 h did not significantly differ from that observed for the longest exposure timing. The putative future inclusion of BPPB in a chemotherapeutic cocktail for HR-NB was assessed by investigating in vitro its cytotoxic effects against mammalian cell lines. These included monkey kidney cells (Cos-7, IC50 = 4.9 µM), human hepatic cells (HepG2, IC50 = 9.6 µM), a lung-derived fibroblast cell line (MRC-5, IC50 = 2.8 µM), and red blood cells (RBCs, IC50 = 14.9 µM). Appreciable to very high selectivity indexes (SIs) have been determined after 24 h treatments (SIs = 2.5–74.6), which provided evidence that both NB cell populations were already fully exterminated. These in vitro results pave the way for future investigations of BPPB on animal models and upon confirmation for the possible development of BPPB as a novel therapeutic to treat MDR HR-NB cells.